News from Thailand

[Peter Hendricks]

Dear friends,

The year is almost up and it's time to wish you all a happy Xmas and a good new year.

There is some good news from Su: her rashes are very slowly getting better. She's working in the orchard again, harvesting Bananas and tending to the trees and cutting down weeds. Alas, her formerly broken toe is still painful and swollen. Seems the docs can't do anything about it. She's also lost a lot of weight, thanks to the strict diet she has to adhere to.

Perhaps you recall some pictures from a year ago, where we twice had to pump water out of our property, because it was flooded. Well, thanks to the strong El Nino this past wet season wasn't very wet at all. I have never seen our pond so empty and the outside canals had almost completely dried up, so we have had to pump water IN for a change. Sadly, we were on a trip to the South at the time and her sister told us too late, so all the fish died. The government has told farmers to expect a drought, possibly for 2 years and to not plant anything in the hot season, as there is likely not enough water.

3 weeks ago we both got Covid. It was mainly fever and sore throats, plus I had a nasty intermittent cough that persisted until recently. We felt a lot better after 5 days and pills from the doc. However, I had trouble with my digestion, probably from eating pills by the handful, so I fasted for a day, then woke up with a severe migraine (more pills) and a few hours later my body sort of shut down. After an hour in bed feeling really weak and worrying about Long Covid I asked Su to take me to hospital. Of course, as soon as I made that decision I felt a lot better.  :-)

More pills and 2 days later I was back to normal. Pfeuww. Monday I have to take my bike for a service in the centre of Bangkok. As bikes are not allowed to use the fast roads I will have to do battle with the tuktuks, taxis and other bikes in rush hour. I'm not looking forward to that.

We ARE looking forward to my mum visiting in January.

There is only a handful of pictures for you this time:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xHdr5bQqoWPyoKYW7

Best wishes to you all,

Peter & Su.